Woman's car crashes into neighbour, killing her
Woman horrified to see elderly neighbour killed in car crash at foot of block in Bukit Panjang
She was tidying the kitchen in her sixth-storey flat when she heard a loud noise from the carpark yesterday morning.
The 59-year-old retiree then heard a woman crying for help.
When she looked out of the window, she saw an elderly neighbour shouting frantically next to her car, which was on a slope after crashing through a barricade.
Then she noticed a sight that shocked her. Lying in a pool of blood on the ground was another neighbour, also a senior citizen.
"Blood kept flowing from her head. I was too scared to go downstairs to get a closer look," the mother of four told The New Paper in Mandarin.
The car had rammed into the victim, 65, near Block 203, Petir Road, in Bukit Panjang.
The victim was returning home after buying groceries from a nearby market at around 10.50am when the accident happened.
Both driver and victim live in the same estate.
A 70-year-old male witness told Shin Min Daily News that the driver was trying to reverse her car into a parking lot.
When she attempted to adjust her position, her car hit the other woman, he said.
Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao quoted another neighbour as saying that the driver had told her that she had accidentally stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake after hitting the elderly woman.
This launched the black car headfirst into a nearby barricade, yanking a chunk of it out of the soil, and down the slope.
According to Wanbao, the elderly woman lugging her trolley of groceries could not avoid the oncoming car and was dragged down the slope.
A 59-year old retiree living at Block 204 said: "She suffered very serious head injuries. Blood was everywhere."
The victim was pronounced dead when the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) arrived at the scene.
Neighbours told TNP that it was a normal day gone awry for both the driver and victim.
The driver was returning home after dropping off her grandson at school, said the Block 204 retiree.
UNEXPECTED
Madam Chong, who lives on the same floor as the victim at Block 201, lamented in Mandarin: "My neighbour was on her way home from the market, like any other day.
"It was so unexpected. She was returning home."
She died just two blocks away from her flat.
Madam Chong, who is her 50s, recounted how the dead would wave to her whenever they met. "She was a friendly person. She would never fail to greet me whenever we saw each other," said the housewife.
When TNP visited the family yesterday at 5.20pm, angry shouts could be heard and several relatives could be seen sitting in silence.
Visibly distraught, the family declined to comment.
The dead woman's sister-in-law, 60, told Wanbao that the elderly woman left behind three sons and two daughters.
According to the daily, family relatives burst into tears when they identified the body at the scene.
Police have arrested a 69-year-old woman for causing death by negligent act. If charged, she may be fined, jailed up to two years, or both.
Police investigations are ongoing.
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